Dr. Pamela Newkirk, a journalist, scholar and author of Diversity Inc.: The Failed Promise of Billion-Dollar Business, has been appointed to the Shubert Organization’s board of director. Newkirk also will sit on the board of the theater owner and producer’s The Shubert Foundation.
The appointment is effective immediately. Newkirk fills an open board seat created by Philip J. Smith’s retirement in June.
“We are delighted to have Pamela join our board and look forward to her active participation,” said Robert E. Wankel, the chairman and CEO of the Shubert Organization. “She brings significant expertise to Shubert, and her insights in matters relating to diversity will be invaluable to us, especially as we strive to achieve a more inclusive and diverse culture at our Company and in the industry.”
Said Diana Phillips, president of the Foundation, “Pamela will be a wonderful addition to our board. She is an original thinker with a genuine passion for the arts and offers a perspective that will be very helpful to the Foundation.”
Newkirk’s multidisciplinary work as a scholar “challenges contemporary and historical depictions of African Americans in popular culture,” the Shubert announcement said. Prior to Diversity Inc., she wrote Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, a 2016 NAACP Image Award winner. She has compiled and edited two collections of African American letters and is the author of Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media which won the National Press Club Award for Media Criticism.
Prior to joining the journalism faculty at New York University, she was a daily reporter at four news organizations including New York Newsday where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team. Her articles have appeared in a number of leading publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Time magazine.
A native New Yorker, Newkirk holds journalism degrees from Columbia University and New York University, and a PhD from Columbia University.
The Shubert Organization owns and operates 17 Broadway theaters and six Off Broadway venues. Among its most recent and upcoming productions are The Band’s Visit, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, and Company. In addition to Wankel and Newkirk, the Organization’s board includes Wyche Fowler Jr., Diana Phillips, Richard J. Poccia, Lee J. Seidler and Stuart Subotnick